Returning the Favor
by Truly Hopeless
Summary: Tiffany ponders her feelings for the cenobite leader and how far she would go to keep him safe.


Author's Note: Okay, some time ago, someone on DeviantArt mentioned that the Hellraiser comics shipped Tiffany and Elliot together (though apparently it isn't true) in a way that didn't really make sense. I talked to kirilkirilkiril and said that I thought that under the right circumstances, this pairing could work, which eventually led to this after she asked how it could work. This is mostly experimental; Pinsty is still my OTP. If you find you don't like this, that's fine, just don't flame me and tell me what a horrible person I am for thinking this could ever work. All recognizable characters belong to Clive Barker and others; Hecate, while named for the goddess of the same name and having some of the same characteristics, is mine. Also, for this story, Kirsty went back to America after Hellbound (Larry mentioned they lived in either Brooklyn or Boston {forgot which} before going to England in the first film), this takes place somewhere between Hell On Earth and Hellseeker, and time in Hell works differently than on Earth (One hour in hell=5 minutes on Earth).

* * *

Tiffany didn't know why she started to have feelings for him. Perhaps it was because of all the times he saved her, or maybe because she enjoyed his company whenever he visited her. Hell, maybe she found him attractive, ignoring his scars and their age difference of roughly seventy years (though he could pass as a man in his early thirties instead of his nineties). Whatever the reason, Tiffany realized she fell in love with the leader of the cenobites.

She tried to ignore these feelings at first, telling herself it could never work. The first and most obvious reason was that he wasn't human anymore. Another reason was that he rarely showed any emotion, often appearing cold and aloof. He'd likely still see her as a child despite turning twenty-three a few months ago. He already saw one lover die and broke up with a second one because they had nothing in common. He would see her affection as hero worship instead of love. These reasons stopped her from telling him how she felt, but her feelings for Elliot Spenser remained.

Six months ago, seven years after Channard's mental institution fell apart, Elliot appeared and saved her again, this time from a few people that apparently wanted to know the location of the puzzle box and turned violent when she refused to tell them. He explained that they were part of a group known as the Harrowers who wanted to destroy his god Leviathan along with the rest of the Labyrinth.

They needed to open one of the boxes to enter the Labyrinth and targeted Tiffany since she was one of the few people to come into contact with the cenobites and not get taken to Hell. Elliot advised her to hide the box she still kept in a secret place and not to go out alone at night. He claimed that he needed to check on Kirsty and another woman-Joey, she recalled him telling her-as they too escaped the cenobites and the Harrowers could target them next.

He came to Tiffany's home at least once a week to check on her. During these visits, they would talk and Tiffany was pleased to find that he was polite, intelligent, and occasionally showed that he had a sense of humor, even if it was dark. Despite not having a lot to say herself, he listened attentively whenever she spoke. Since Kirsty couldn't visit her very often with a job and a new boyfriend to consider on top of the Harrowers after them, she looked forward to Elliot's visits. This became another reason not to tell him how she really felt about him; if he knew she had a crush on him, he might not want to be her friend anymore.

* * *

One night, Tiffany and Elliot started to return to her home after patrolling the city for Harrower activity. He agreed to let her come with him as long as she stayed near him in case of an ambush. This was the third time they went out and they found nothing.

When they were several blocks away from Tiffany's home, however, Tiffany saw a small red light appear on Elliot's back and almost immediately move toward the back of his head. The light from a sniper's rifle. She remembered Elliot telling her that the Harrowers made bullets that could easily kill a cenobite with one shot.

Fearing for his safety, she pushed Elliot out of the way of the light. Something pierced her shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain and fall to the ground.

"Tiffany?" Elliot stood up and went to his fallen companion. He noticed a needle embedded deep in her shoulder. All Tiffany could say was, "Someone's watching us..." before she passed out. He now saw the red light she had seen. He moved out of the way as the unseen Harrower fired again and sent several chains in the direction the shot came from. The agonized scream and the faint sound of blood and body parts falling to the ground informed him that he hit his mark.

He turned his attention back to Tiffany. He touched her neck and felt her heart beat beneath his fingertips. She lived, but the needle caused her enough pain to make her unconscious. Carefully, he removed the needle and examined it. Mixed with Tiffany's blood was a thick blue substance, the color of a poison dart frog.

Recognizing the substance immediately, he put the needle in a pouch on his tool belt and picked Tiffany up, one arm going under her knees, the other one supporting her back.

Tiffany woke up in time to see them go through a portal he summoned. When she looked up at Elliot, he had a worried expression on his face she never saw before as he moved as quickly as possible through the Labyrinth without dropping her.

"Surgeon!" he shouted to another cenobite she could not see. "Find Hecate and tell her to come to my chambers immediately, then go there yourself! This woman has been poisoned and will die if not treated quickly!"

Tiffany's eyes closed briefly as Elliot continued to rush through the Labyrinth. Nearly everything inside her burned. What poison did the Harrowers use to make her hurt this badly?

Elliot slowed down when they reached a room she presumed to be his chambers. He went inside, gently placed her on the bed, then went over to his desk. He took what looked like an ink pen and pressed the sharp tip into his index finger, grunting a little as bluish-red blood oozed from the cut and into the pen. Once halfway filled with blood, he used the pen to quickly write something on a piece of paper.

When he finished he went back to Tiffany, his finger healing almost immediately. He seemed slightly relieved when he saw her eyes open, but traces of concern remained on his face.

"Tiffany, I need you to stay awake for a little while longer. That needle was coated in dragon venom. If not removed quickly, it can kill a human within a few hours. Please stay awake until the surgery is done so I know you're alive. Blink if you understand." She did and Elliot touched her face for a moment. The coolness of his fingertips relieved some of the burning, but not enough for her to completely ignore the pain.

"What were you writing, Elliot?" Tiffany was glad she could still talk at least, though the action burned her throat a little.

"I sent a message to Kirsty telling her to come here, too. We need human blood in order to perform surgery. Since you two are friends and her blood type is O positive, it is wiser to have her do it instead of using a random prisoner."

As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened with a bang and Kirsty came in. Her face was flushed and she panted like she had just finished a marathon. She wore a black dress and held a pair of heels in her hand. She must have come directly from a date with her boyfriend.

"I came as quickly as I could," she told the pinheaded cenobite once she caught her breath. She went to Tiffany. "How are you feeling?" she asked anxiously, reaching for her hand.

On Kirsty's forearm, Tiffany could see the fading message Elliot sent: _Tiffany has been poisoned. Blood is needed for surgery. Come at once. _She answered her friend's question. "I feel like someone set me on fire, but otherwise I'm fine."

This seemed to relieve Elliot. "The venom hasn't spread as quickly as I originally thought. Normally, humans with dragon's venom in their system would be completely numb by now. We have a little more time."

"Okay, but isn't there anything we can do about the pain?" Kirsty asked, concern still evident in her voice

"The pain will leave once the surgery is done. Any attempts to alleviate it now could cause more harm than good."

A sharp knock sounded on the door and once Elliot gave permission, two cenobites entered. One was male and had two metal plates pressed against his eyes, the other a female who had symbols carved into every inch of exposed flesh on her body and cold grey eyes. This had to be Hecate, the Witch. She looked at Tiffany for a moment before addressing Elliot.

"What poison did they use on this one, Xipe?" Her voice, while quiet, seemed to fill the whole room.

"They used dragon venom." Elliot took the needle from his pouch and carefully handed it to her. She squinted at the mixture of blood and venom and nodded her head.

"Blood type A positive. A fairly common blood type; Kirsty's blood should work. You are willing to give blood, correct?" Kirsty nodded. "Good. Tiffany, I need to make the venom move to your stomach. It will feel very uncomfortable, but it is easier to move everything in one place."

She then held up her hands and began to chant in a language Tiffany didn't recognize. At once, Tiffany felt all of the pain move to her belly as the Witch promised and she cried out a little, but she stayed still. Elliot and Kirsty carefully removed her sweater so Surgeon could easily operate on her.

Hecate removed an empty vial from a pocket in her robe. "Surgeon, you may begin."

* * *

After an hour, the same vial, now filled to the brim with dragon venom, sat in the palm of Hecate's hand as Surgeon closed the incision made in Tiffany's stomach. Kirsty allowed Elliot to help her sit down on the chair at the desk as she felt unstable with the blood loss.

The Witch took another vial from her robe, this one filled with a magenta colored liquid, and gave it to Kirsty. "This should help prevent you from passing out long enough for you to leave here and receive sustenance."

"Thank you." Kirsty drank the potion, shuddering a little at the taste, but otherwise not negatively affected.

"As for you, Tiffany, I suggest you rest and perhaps not go on future patrols for a while. Will you allow her to sleep here for a while, Xipe?"

"Of course."

"Very well. I shall examine the venom to see if I can make an antidote in case the Harrowers continue to use this in future."

"Thank you both for arriving so quickly."

"My pleasure. Farewell." She left and Surgeon followed shortly afterward.

Once her dizziness subsided, Kirsty stood up and went to Tiffany. "Do you feel better now?"

"Yes," Tiffany confirmed. "I'm just tired."

"Great. I guess I'll just go back to Trevor before he thinks I left." She hugged Elliot briefly. "Thanks for letting me know Tiffany was in trouble. If either of you need me for anything else, let me know."

"I shall. Goodnight." After putting her heels back on, she gave Tiffany a hug as well and left, leaving Elliot and Tiffany alone.

He came over and helped her under the bedclothes. Then he went over to his desk and began to check on the condition of his tools and write a report on all that happened that evening. For five minutes, all Tiffany could hear was the scratching of his pen and her own heartbeat.

Then Elliot spoke. "I must thank you for noticing and preventing the Harrower from shooting me. While the dragon venom wouldn't have killed me, it would have knocked me out long enough for him to use a weapon that would. However, I need to know why you allowed yourself to get shot? If you just warned me before he fired, I could have moved out of the way in time and killed the Harrower, keeping us both out of danger.

"But you pushed me out of harm's way and put yourself in great pain for it. Why did you do that?"

Tiffany felt uncomfortable. _He can't know how I feel! He'll hate me. _

She took a deep breath, sat up, and decided to tell him the truth, or most of it.

"I don't want you to die again, especially after all the times we've been together. I like having you come over and talking to me and I don't want it to stop. I also feel that I owe you my life for giving yours to save me and Kirsty."

Elliot knew she held something back, but he didn't press her. Instead, he came over and cupped her face in his hands.

"I'm glad you care about my wellbeing and that you think of me as your friend. But next time, don't risk your life for my sake. I enjoy your company as well and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you died. If you see that we are in danger in the future, tell me so that I can get us out of it alive."

Then he did something that nearly made her heart stop from surprise: he leaned in and briefly brushed his lips against her forehead. To this day, she remembers his cool breath, the pins that poked her, but did not break the skin, and the rising heat in her cheeks.

Without a word, Elliot returned to his report and Tiffany allowed herself to fall back on the pillow. In hindsight, his kiss probably meant nothing since he never brought it up again, but to Tiffany, it let her know that he cared about her. And if his increased visits to her house after that night were any indication, perhaps it meant more to him as well.

* * *

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! ㈏2


End file.
